Police in Quebec have lost 4 guns since 2020. Critics say that's unacceptable

The two largest police forces in Quebec — the Montreal police and the Sûreté du Québec — have lost a total of four guns since 2020, according to an access to information request.

CBC Montreal asked 12 police forces across Quebec, including Laval, Longueuil, Quebec City, Montreal and the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), how many service weapons were lost between 2020 and fall 2024. 

All but two of the police forces reported zero lost service weapons.

The Montreal police reported three lost handguns since 2020.

The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) declined an on-camera interview, but said one weapon was stolen in 2021 after SPVM officer Sanjay Vig was attacked during a traffic stop.

Ali Ngarukiye disarmed Vig and fired his service weapon before fleeing. Ngarukiye was arrested in Toronto two months later, but the gun was not recovered.

A handgun was mislaid at a shooting range in 2022 due to a data entry error which was corrected in 2024 during the annual inventory. It was not a police officer's service weapon, but a gun in the SPVM's inventory.

A third gun was also incorrectly classified in the computer system. The error was later corrected, said SPVM spokesperson Caroline Labelle.

In the SQ's case, a Glock 17 pistol went missing during an officer's medical leave of absence in 2022. It has yet to be located.

While experts say mistakes can happen, critics believe police should be held to a higher standard when it comes to how weapons are managed, especially at a time when many police forces are arguing for more funding to combat what they characterize as rising crime, violence and gangs.

WATCH | A break down of how the guns went missing: 

How did police in Quebec lose 4 guns in 4 years?

1 day ago

Duration 3:55

Administrative errors, a mislaid weapon and a criminal incident were behind the missing handguns, a CBC News investigation found.

Was protocol followed?

There are strict rules and standards about how service weapons are managed, stored and secured by the police. There are also internal operating procedures.

The missing SQ handgun was taken by a supervisor and was supposed to be logged and locked in the station's vault, said spokesperson Lt. Benoit Richard.

After 90 days, it was then supposed to be transferred to the armoury at SQ headquarters in Montreal.

But when the officer returned from their leave of absence, the gun could not be found. It was immediately reported and the serial number was shared with the Centre de renseignements policiers du Québec (CRPQ), so if the firearm is found somewhere else in Canada, it will be identified.

"As of right now, we don't know where the firearm is," said Richard. "Is it in a box in the vault? Is it somewhere else?"

Richard said there were quite a few different supervisors at the station where the gun went missing. The SQ doesn't know if the gun was brought to the armoury or if there was an error signing it in.

"So is it because the officers didn't know what the other one did before?" said Richard.

There was an internal investigation to examine if the proper protocol was followed. So far, nothing out of the ordinary was brought to the attention of the investigators, he said.

While a gun should never go missing, Richard said there are thousands of guns issued to SQ officers across Quebec, in addition to specific firearms in the SQ's arsenal.

"Maybe in the next couple of months there's going to be a vault check that's going to be done and maybe we're going to find it in one of the vaults," said Richard.

The SPVM said a police officer who loses their firearm must fill out an incident report, which is forwarded to their unit manager.

The unit manager will determine whether "negligence has occurred and may initiate administrative or disciplinary action," said SPVM spokesperson Labelle in an email to CBC.

The serial number of Officer Vig's gun is registered in North American police information banks and will be flagged if it is found or used in a crime.

With the exception of that gun, Labelle said no weapons have "actually" been lost in recent years because the other weapons were in the SPVM's possession.

She would not go into further detail about whether directives were issued after the data entry errors as the processes in place are internal. The SPVM would also not say if an officer had been disciplined in the past for losing a gun as that information is confidential.

"Rest assured, however, that the tracking of firearms under the responsibility of the SPVM is rigorous and functioning," wrote Labelle.

Police need to be 'beyond reproach'

This is not the first time a police force has been called out for lost weapons.

Last fall, CTV reported the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) had lost more than 200 firearms, including shotguns, rifles and submachine guns.

Although the number of lost weapons in Quebec is much lower than the RCMP, it should be zero across the board, said Tari Ajadi, an assistant professor of political science at McGill University who studies movements to either reform or defund the police.

This is especially critical at a time when municipal police budgets are going up, he said.

"This is the most lethal thing that we have in our society and is the thing they themselves claim they are trying to stamp out in the streets," said Ajadi. "When we're talking about a weapon that can kill people, we're talking about lethal force. The [police] forces need to be beyond reproach."

Ajadi also doesn't understand how there could not be consequences for the SQ officers that were in charge when the gun went missing in 2022. He questions the systems that are in place to hold officers accountable.

"What's happening in internal affairs such that they don't see wrongdoing, because by definition, it being lost is wrongdoing," said Ajadi. "Regardless of whether it was with malice or whether it was done by accident, this is what you're paid to do."

Matt Torigian is the former deputy solicitor general for Ontario and the former chief of police for the Waterloo Regional Police Service.

He said anytime a firearm is unaccounted for, be it a citizen's gun or police, it needs to be taken seriously and everything must be done to find it.

Police leaders then need to determine if this was a mistake, an exceptional circumstance or if there was misconduct involved to help ensure any necessary changes are made, he said. 

"Do we have the right policies in place? Are the procedures there? Were there directives that should have been issued that weren't issued? What kind of account auditing system do we have in place and how robust is that auditing system?" Torigian said.

It can sometimes take some time for internal investigations to play out and for a change in policy or procedure to be put in place, he said.

If it was an administrative error, that may be addressed internally. But if there's misconduct or negligence found, Torigian said any change in policy or procedure would be reported to the oversight body, which is important for transparency.

"That is what builds the public trust," said Torigian. "That's what is going to give the public confidence that in fact we are holding ourselves to account."

Quebec's Public Security Ministry did not return CBC's request for comment.